Loneliness+and+Comradery+Topic+1

Topic
toc Loneliness and Comradery in Shakespeare’s //Hamlet// Loneliness and Comradery in Salinger’s //The Catcher in the Rye//

Before, during, and after reading J.D. Salinger’s //The Catcher in the Rye// and/or Shakespeare’s //Hamlet// students will explore the themes of loneliness and comradery. In the case of Holden Caulfield, students should explore how Holden's desire to be the catcher in the rye in the midst of his own plunge into the adult world leads to isolation (loneliness) and anxiety. They should also analyze how Holden's relationship (comradery) with Phoebe saves him from total despair. In the case of Hamlet, students should analyze how Prince Hamlet’s isolation stems from his knowledge of his father’s murder, his inability or hesitancy to act on this knowledge, the loss of his father, and his sense of betrayal that is caused by his detachment from his mother and Ophelia. With regards to comradery, Hamlet’s relationship with Horatio should be examined, and the final scene should be scrutinized in order to reveal the ultimate importance of Horatio’s role.

Before reading any of the texts in this entire unit, students should discuss their own concepts and create/write their own definitions for the terms loneliness and comradery. They should also be prompted to explore/analyze the causes and effects of loneliness/isolation and comradery/friendship/companionship. As they read and after they finish reading each work of literature, students should articulate each author’s particular definition/perspective relating to the concepts of loneliness/isolation and comradery/friendship. They should also be able to explain/infer/analyze how each author’s concepts of these themes have different implications, causes, and effects. Students should be prompted to explain how one author’s perspective of loneliness and comradery differs from another author’s perspective. Students must be able to analyze/explain how the characters relate to and reinforce the author’s particular perspective of these themes. Students should compare their own definitions of these terms/concepts to each author’s perspective. They should then be given the opportunity to revise their own definitions of loneliness and comradery, and (if necessary) incorporate/synthesize aspects of each author’s definitions for these terms/concepts into their revised definition. Finally, students should also be able to explain/articulate not only what brought about these revised personal definitions but also how experiencing these texts has broadened their understanding of these themes.

Common Core Standards

 * RL.11-12.1.** Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.


 * RL.11-12.2.** Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.


 * RL.11-12.3.** Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).


 * RL.11-12.4.** Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.


 * RL.11-12.5.** Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.


 * RL.11-12.6.** Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).


 * RL.11-12.9.** Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.


 * RI.11-12.6.** Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.


 * W.11-12.2.** Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.


 * W.11-12.5.** Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.


 * W.11-12.6.** Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.


 * SL.11-12.1.** Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.


 * L.11-12.1.** Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.


 * Apply the understanding that usage is a matter of convention, can change over time, and is sometimes contested.


 * L.11-12.4.** Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on //grades 11–12 reading and content//, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
 * Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
 * Identify and correctly use patterns of word changes that indicate different meanings or parts of speech (e.g., //conceive, conception, conceivable//).
 * Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part of speech, its etymology, or its standard usage.
 * Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).


 * L.11-12.5.** Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
 * Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text.
 * Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

Suggested Student Objectives

 * To explore students’ own concepts and create their own definitions for the terms loneliness and comradery.


 * To examine and analyze definitions/depictions of loneliness and comradery in full length works of literature and to compare and contrast various authors’ depictions/causes/effects/implications/significance of these themes to their own definitions of loneliness and comradery. While the activities here focus on //The Catcher in the Rye// and //Hamlet//, many can and should also be adapted to work particularly well with John Steinbeck’s //Of Mice and Men// and Arthur Miller’s //Death of a Salesman//, which are the texts the previous unit (//Disillusion and the American Dream)//.


 * To explore the themes of loneliness and comradery in depth from many different angles and points of view.


 * To understand the implications of loneliness and comradery for themselves, society, and how these implications are reflected in literature
 * To help students explore and understand the intentions, characterizations and meanings of the texts.


 * To encourage students to analyze and interpret the development of the main characters.


 * To understand dramatic elements such as symbols, flashbacks, figurative language, foreshadowing, and irony and to understand how they are used in the context of the literature.


 * To enrich students’, vocabulary and to encourage //them// to use vocabulary such as: climax, exposition, melodrama, props, atmosphere, dialogue, fantasy, setting, tragedy, stage directions, tempo, and theme. Students should understand how the vocabulary is used in each text.


 * To improve writing skills by providing a variety of writing assignments related to the literary selections and full texts.


 * To improve literary analysis skills and comprehension by understanding the various causes, effects, and definitions of loneliness and comradery reflected in each text.


 * To provide students with a springboard to create, reevaluate, and revise their own concepts/definitions of loneliness and comradery.

Aside from exploring the themes of loneliness and comradery, the following activities require students to conduct a variety of close readings of the texts which will not only utilize and reinforce analytical skills required for success on the English Regents Exam (such as drawing inferences and analyzing the basic literary elements and techniques of characterization, conflict, plot, setting, theme, irony, suspense, foreshadowing, and symbolism) but they will also acquire/develop skills required for the Common Core English Standards, AP English courses and college English courses (such as analyzing diction, syntax, tone, author’s intention/purpose, and dealing with complex/sophisticated texts which function on multiple levels meaning).

Suggested Additional Readings
A College Student’s Senior Thesis (Essay) on Holden AND Hamlet

“Holden and Hamlet: A Comparison of Two Lost Boys” (Note: Copy and paste the link below into your web browser. It will bring you directly to the PDF of the document.)

[|https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:_pT-f3JsQw4J:https://www.klht.org/ftpimages/170/misc/misc_62141.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgaPBNbLIZLminGFuy2buMQId7sOm0tErVmhJlIBYctzh15swGRoA7S02GPweXXCq1WDybiuO94FbB2iq-RYbry9YFrGfXDvAHmyxSUjfMnz4FRWik79g5MGtExdlYIveVC38UU&sig=AHIEtbS7yGoCz_p7AwayftM9kxu12mu1qg]

A //New York Times// article on Hamlet An online article on Holden’s psychological problems (see link in the next section below)

Resource Links


 * Shakespeare **

A //New York Times// article on //Hamlet//

An “Introductory Lecture on Shakespeare’s Hamlet”

An online forum discussing Hamlet’s isolation

A compilation of Shakespeare’s quotes about friendship (Note: these quotes come from a variety of Shakespeare’s works):


 * Salinger **

Important quotes about isolation from the novel

Article on Holden’s psychological problems

Article on Holden’s alienation


 * Shakespeare and Salinger **

A College Student’s Senior Thesis (Essay) on Holden AND Hamlet

“Holden and Hamlet: A Comparison of Two Lost Boys”

(Note: Copy and paste the link below into your web browser. It will bring you directly to the PDF of the document.)  [|https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:_pT-f3JsQw4J:https://www.klht.org/ftpimages/170/misc/misc_62141.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgaPBNbLIZLminGFuy2buMQId7sOm0tErVmhJlIBYctzh15swGRoA7S02GPweXXCq1WDybiuO94FbB2iq-RYbry9YFrGfXDvAHmyxSUjfMnz4FRWik79g5MGtExdlYIveVC38UU&sig=AHIEtbS7yGoCz_p7AwayftM9kxu12mu1qg]

Activities
//Note: When planning lessons related to the following activities, please consider that each activity (identified by an asterisk *) requires multiple days to complete.//


 * Before reading any of the texts in this entire unit, students should discuss their own concepts and create/write their own definitions for the terms loneliness and comradery. They should also be prompted to explore/analyze the causes and effects of loneliness/isolation and comradery/friendship/companionship. As they read and after they finish reading each work of literature, students should articulate each author’s particular definition/perspective relating to the concepts of loneliness/isolation and comradery/friendship. They should also be able to explain/infer/analyze how each author’s concepts of these themes have different implications, causes, and effects. Students should be prompted to explain how one author’s perspective of loneliness and comradery differs from another author’s perspective. Students must be able to analyze/explain how the characters relate to and reinforce the author’s particular perspective of these themes. Students should compare their own definitions of these terms/concepts to each author’s perspective. They should then be given the opportunity to revise their own definitions of loneliness and comradery, and if necessary incorporate/synthesize aspects of each author’s definitions for these terms/concepts into their revised definition. Finally, students should also be able to explain/articulate not only what brought about these revised personal definitions but also how experiencing these texts has broadened their understanding of these themes.


 * Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text through the following activities:

Students should focus on particular scenes and explain, through writing and discussion, the significance of the scenes and their roles in reinforcing the greater themes of the overall work and the themes of loneliness and comradery. They should be able to articulate what is going on in the text on both a literal level and also a deeper (metaphorical/symbolic/thematic) level.


 * Salinger**

Suggestions include the scene with the prostitute, the scene where Holden talks about wanting to be the catcher in the rye, the scene with Mr. Antolini, the scene on the carousel, and the final pages of the novel.


 * Shakespeare**

Suggestions include Hamlet’s first soliloquy, the “To be or not to be” speech, the gravedigger scene, Hamlet’s false comradery with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the significance of the subplot regarding Fortinbras.


 * Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account through the following activities:

Students should pay particular attention to the themes of loneliness and comradery, explore how these themes are developed throughout each work, and determine how these themes affect the actions of each protagonist. These activities lend themselves well to writing assignments and/or group or whole class discussions.


 * Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed) through the following activities:


 * Salinger**

After finishing the final page of the novel, have students reread the first page to see what they “discover.” On their first reading, many students overlook the fact that on the first page Holden indirectly reveals that he is currently (as he tells the story) in an institution on the west coast. Students should also be able to determine the climax of the novel, and they should be able to defend the scene they choose through sound arguments which rely on textual evidence.


 * Shakespeare**

While reading the play, students should be able to use textual evidence to infer and explain what, if anything has happened “off stage” between scenes. For example, it is clear that Ophelia breaks up with Hamlet, but this scene is not included in the play. Instances such as this occur throughout the play, and students should be able to identify them and use textual evidence to explain how they identified them.


 * Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful through the following activities:


 * Salinger**

Students should pay special attention to the many techniques Salinger uses to convey the idea that an angst ridden teenager is speaking to the reader. The following prompt can be used to force students to conduct a close reading of the novel: “We know that Salinger was an adult when he wrote this novel, but he succeeded in creating a teenage character that seems so lifelike, so real. How does he do this? Specifically, what techniques does Salinger use to get his readers to believe that Holden is a living, breathing young man?” This prompt will force students to take a second look at the novel in order to see how, among other techniques, Salinger utilizes/manipulates informal diction (and slang), a cynical tone which connects significantly on isolation/alienation, meandering and tangential sentences, repetition, sentence rhythm, and subject matter relevant to a teenager to convince his readers that Holden is a real person.


 * Shakespeare**

Students should focus on a particular passage of importance (consider some of Hamlet’s soliloquies and/or quotes which focus on isolation and/or comradery/friendship, for example) and carefully, word for word, decipher (literal) meaning and (metaphorical) double meanings. In order to do this successfully, students must pay special attention to punctuation, the connotation and denotation of words and phrases, and syntax (which is often inverted). All too often, students and teachers rely on a modernized translation to help them comprehend Shakespeare’s Language, but it is more valuable to use the modernized translation to uncover what “gets lost” when Shakespeare’s language is watered down by these translations. For example, many of the sexual double entendres are often glossed over in modernized translations designed for young students. This will often increase a student’s appreciation for the complexity and ambiguity of Shakespeare’s actual words. It is advised that a dictionary (or even a lexicon of Shakespearean terms) is used to assist in these activities. Another approach which encourages students to interact with Shakespeare’s actual words and which also discourages dependence on a modernized translation is to have students create their own modernized translations from Shakespeare’s texts for a few important passages. These student-created modernized translations can then be compared to the modernized translations found on Spark Notes No Fear Shakespeare web site, for example.

Assessments
The teacher will monitor and critique/evaluate class activities while providing assistance and feedback when necessary. Students will be assessed through a variety of evaluative tools/assignments. These include but are not limited to questioning during whole-class or individualized close readings which checks for understanding/comprehension of the texts' complexities an multiple meanings, homework assignments which reinforce skills developed during class activities and instruction, frequent quizzes, tests/exams, and thematic essay assignments which reinforce skills required for the Common Core English Standards, the English Regents Exam, and the above activities. Teachers should feel free to adapt any of the above activities to fit essay assignments or lessons that span multiple days. At the very least, a variation of the rubrics used for the English Regents should be used for evaluation and to provide students with feedback and validations of grades.